WMU to build on-campus apartments: Work to start in April on more than 800 beds planned in two phases

View full sizeGazette graphic.WMU apartmentsKALAMAZOO — Upper-classmen at Western Michigan University will have new on-campus living options starting in the fall of 2011.

WMU officials Thursday announced plans for a $12.5 million development of apartment-style housing on parking lots 36 and 90 between Knollwood Avenue and Khorman Hall. Site work will begin in April on apartments with one, two, three and four bedrooms. Four buildings, containing 336 beds in 138 units, will be constructed.

A second phase scheduled for construction within the next four years will add more than 500 additional beds in apartments to be built next to the first-phase units and behind the Bernhard Center and Sangren Hall, WMU said in a news release.

The apartments will be the first undergraduate student housing on WMU’s main campus since residence halls in Goldworth Valley were built from 1963-65.

“As students get older they have different needs and preferences, but still want to be near campus,” WMU spokeswoman Cheryl Roland said of expected demand for new on-campus apartments.

Plans were shared over the past 10 days with the Western Michigan Student Association and WMU’s Residence Hall Association, both of which offered input on floor plans and pricing. Prices are projected to range from $675 for a one-bedroom unit to $370 per person for a four-bedroom apartment.

Roland stressed that the design plans are tentative and will be finalized before site work begins.

The development will feature three-story buildings with brick facades “and a traditional look similar to WMU’s East Campus,” according to a news release. Each will have it’s own name to give the feeling of living in a “real residential area,” said Dave Dakin, director of campus planning.

Funding for the $12.5 million first phase will come through a bond issue, with the debt to be paid off with money derived from rent.

“We’ve had a waiting list of students who want to live on campus, but live in apartment housing,” Roland said. “We know students do better and advance more quickly through their degrees if they’re closer to their resources. This will finally allow those students to do that.”